Evaporator.



No. 801,346. PATENTED OCT. 10, 1905. H. U. TABRETT & W. LEWIN.

EVAPURATOR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 20, 1904.

1 HEETSF-SHEEI' 1.

Jt'amn outlet v 'nZeE A TTORNE Y No 801,346. PATENTED' OCT. 10, 1905.

H. G. TABRETT & W. LEWIN. EVAPORATOR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 26. 1904.

3 SHEETSSHEET 2.

No. 801,346. I PATENTBD OCT. 10, 1905 0. TABRETT & W. LEWIN.

EVAPORATOR.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 26. 1904.

3 SHEETS-SHBET, 3.

INVENTQRSO ATTORNEY.

lUNlTFD PATENT curios.

HENRY c. TABRETT AND WALTER LEWIN, or sAN FRANCISCO,

CALIFORNIA.

EVAPORATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 10, 1905.

Application filed February 26, 1904:. Serial No. 195,471.

To ctZZ whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, HENRY C. TABRETT, residing at 3847 Twenty-firststreet, and WALTER LEWIN, residing at 1227 Page street, in the city of San Francisco,county of San Francisco, State of California, citizens of the United States, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Evaporators; and we do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of said invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to which it most nearly appertains to make, use, and practice the same.

This invention relates to evaporation, and particularly to machines for the derivation of fresh or pure water from sea or foul water.

The invention consists, primarily, in dividing the apparatus into units of novel construction and arrangement and operating them in batteries.

Heretofore apparatus of this class have been built in single units of the desired capacity, which have proven cumbersome and difficult to repair, this latter necessitating the shutting down of the whole apparatus. This class of mechanism has its widest use on shipboard where available space is limited or irregular in shape, the installation being often accomplished with difi'iculty and resulting in subsequent inconvenience.

The objects of this invention are to provide an evaporator free from the above objections, occupying small floor-space, and capable of a varied distribution of its corporative units.

\Vith these objects in view the invention consists, broadly, of an evaporation-chamber having a front opening at. an angle to the perpendicular and covered by a sealed door internally cored to provide ports coinciding with steam-inlets to a series of steam-coils attached to the said door. These coils extend into the water contained within the evaporationcharnber, a vertical outlet from the evaporation-chamber communicating with a separating-pile consisting of a series of vertical tubes one within the other and alternately open top and bottom, whereby the vapor is caused to take a tortuous way to the outlet which is reached through a check or non-return valve controlling the passage to the condenser or still, and with the necessary intercommunication pipes and valves, &c.between the several units in the battery.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a front elevation of a battery of evaporators constructed and arranged in accordance with this invenof six units united with their respective evaporation-chambers cast as an integral whole.

In detail the construction consists of the evaporating chamber comprising the coilspace A, axially inclined from the perpendicular and within which the water and heating coils are contained, and the vertical dome A, from which the vapor escapes upward into the separating-pile. The evaporating-chamber is preferably cast in one integral piece suitably cored to form the independent channels or ports A and A coinciding with the similarly-formed ports in the cover or closure A2 communicating through the gates B in the terminal heads B on the respective ends of the coils B. The said closure or cover A* is securely sealed and bolted to the faced opening of the space A.

The separating-pile is securely sealed and bolted to the flanged upper opening of the dome A and consists of a cylindrical chamber formed of the base G, into which the shell 0 is screwed or brazed and which is topped by the cap C having the center opening C leading into the valve-chamber D against the valve-gate D, controlled by the stem D extending upwardly through the stuffing-box D and supporting the pressureopposing weight D. Entrance to the separating-pile from the evaporating-chamber is through the upwardly-extending tube (1*, screwed into the center of the base C and topped by the downwardly-flanged cap C, havinglateral gateways 0 leading to the space within the downwardly-extending shell C screwed into the flange O on the cap C and terminating near the base C.

Live steam is led from the boilers through the main E, through the valves E to the ports A communicating with the coils B,

thence through the ports A to the exhaust lead E, thence to the condenser. The globe of the valve E permits an unobstructed passage of the steam along the main, the valveseats controlling the inlet to the coils being below the path of the steam.

Sea-water being the principal liquid treated by this apparatus, this term will be used as comprehensively including any liquid purifiable by this process of treatment. Sea-water is pumped through the main F through the regulating-valves F to the evaporation-chamber, the supply being regulated to compensate for the demands of evaporation, maintaining a mean, water-level approximating that shown in Fig. 2to wit, submerging about one-third of the surface of the heatingcoils. This supply regulation is easily determined in practice, or it maybe maintained by any suitable means. The water-level is always indicated by the gage-glass G, attached to the most convenient unit in the battery and provided with the pipe connection G, open to the pressure within battery-outlet to balance the pressure within the glass, for obvious reasons.

The evaporatioil-chambers of a battery may be combined, as shown in Fig. a, in an integral casting with separating-webs to preserve the independence of the various units. This is a desirable construction in special instances and is claimed as a part of the invention.

Operation: An evaporation plant consists of the combination of units as described above, cooperating to produce the desired quantity of evaporation. The sea-water is permitted to flow into the apparatus to the desired level. The steam is turned into the main, passing into the coils at the top and downward through the submerged portion, giving off its heat to the sea-water andraising the temperature of same to the point of evaporation. The vapor from the water rises among the convolutions of the coils, which are hottest at the top of the coil and which tend to su perheat the vapor, causing the precipitation of any salt or impurity that may be held in suspension in the vapor where the density of the latter is too great, which often results where violent bubbling-is present. From the evaporation-chamber the vapor rises into the separating-pile through the tube C, thence through the gateways 0", thence downward inside the shell hence upward within the shell C to the condenser or any apparatus for the further purification or distillation of the vapor, which apparatus does not enter within the scope of this present invention.

por exerting its pressure lifts the weighted valve-gate D and escapes to its dest1nat1on.

To guard against trapping the vapor by reason of an accumulation of water at the base of the evaporation-pile, the lower portion of the shell (J is perforated at C" to provide an emergency-passage for the vapor should the said shell become sealed at its lower end by an accumulation of condensed vapors which for any reason have failed to pass 011' through pipe C Obviously as the water in the evaporation-chamber is evaporated it will become denser and deposit scale on the coils unless drawn away from the influence ot the heat. To this end the preei iiitation-legs H lead from the bottom of the evaporation chambers downward a sufficient distance to accommodate the denser liquid. These precipitationlegs should be periodically washed out by opening them to the bilge or waste through the cooks H.

Should the evaporator be forced beyond its normal capacity, a slight saline or mineral deposit on the coils may result. The coils are easily rid of this deposit by draining off the water in the evaporation-chamber and permitting the increasing heat to expand the coils, which can be readily contracted by rapidly filling the evaporation-chainber with cold water. The violent expansion and contraction results in cracking ofl the deposit.

A battery evaporator such as described may be arranged in circles, in rows, and variously disposed in angles or irregular places. The units may be connected in multiple, as shown, 0 in any other suitable manner. The particular advantage of the unit system, however, is the ability to cut one or more units out of operation without seriously crippling the apparatus as a whole.

Having thus described this invention, what is claimed, and desired to be secured by Letters Patent, is

1. An apparatus of the character described comprising an evaporatingchamber having its walls provided with independent channels, a closure for said chamber also provided with independent channels coinciding with said former channels, inlet and outlet pipes communicating with the channels in said walls, and a coil of pipe having its terminals respectively connected with the channels in said closure.

2. An apparatus of the character described comprising an evapOrating-chamber, a clo sure therefor, and heating-coils secured there to, the wall of said closure being provided with internal inlet and outlet channels with which the terminals of said coils communicate.

3. An apparatus of the character described comprising an evaporating-chamber, a closure therefor, and heating-coils secured thereto, the wall of said closure being provided with internal inlet and outlet channels with which the terminals of said coils communicate, and means for separating the vapor arising from said chamber.

*1. An apparatus of the character described, In testimony whereof We have hereunto set comprising an evaporating-chamber, a 010- our hands this 7th day of January, 1904.

sure therefor, and heating-coils secured to said HENRY C. TABRETT. closure by terminal heads and provided with i WALTER LEWIN.

5 gates or ports, said closure being provided i Witnesses:

with inlet and outlet channels with which said BALDWIN VAN,

gates or ports communicate.

JAMES ADDISON. 

